To Regionals
by Mrs. Finn Hudson
Summary: Take place during regionals. Contains spoilers and spectualtions. Completed.
1. Brake up

**Ahh I keep writing more stories! I have a problem =P**

**Of course, I do not own Glee or the characters. *Cries* ;)**

**Warning:**** This story contains spoilers and speculations for Journey to Regional is so if you do not want to know any spoilers for the last ep do not read it. If you do read on =)**

**Italics are flashbacks.**

Rachel peeked through the blue velvet curtains to see the room she would later sing in. it was beautiful, breath taking. The room was already full, people sitting in the reclining seats, smiling and talking but falling silent as the music started. The stage was much bigger than the sectionals one, so much bigger, spotlights beaming on every part of the polished, wooden floor of the stage. The room was bigger as well, meaning more people to watch them, glittering lights that were hanging from the ceiling but more like floating above them. The whole scene was mesmerising, it made you feel small, helpless, like a tourist. The only thing that spoiled this magnificent sight was them. Vocal Adrenaline. Watching them sing Hate That I Love You by Rihanna and Ne-Yo, the lead singer? Jesse St. James. Just watching him made Rachel's blood boil through her body, watching him sing it with another girl. Even though she was fuming with anger, she still loved his voice, Rachel felt like it should be her up there singing with him. She hated that she still loves him. The song was made for them not him and some random girl. When she hears his voice she starts going backwards, she starts to fall for him again, but whenever she starts feeling like that she thinks back to when he broke up with her.

"_Rachel" Jesse quietly said while approaching her at her locker._

_She turned around and smiled. "Hey Jesse." she noticed he wasn't smiling, he wasn't looking at her either. "What's wrong?"_

"_I-I have to tell you something." he managed to say._

"_Yeah." Rachel's voice started to sound concerned._

"_Rachel." he looked up at her, at her big, gorgeous eyes, which didn't make it any better with what he was about to say so he looked back down at the floor. If he was going to say this, he can't say it with him staring at her. "I like you, like like-like you really." he started. "I haven't been honest with you." he sighed._

_Rachel at this point was completely confused to what he was trying to say. He wouldn't look at her, just the floor, and he kept sighing. Clearly, something was bugging him. "What do you mean?" Rachel asked._

"_I'm not- I'm here because my coach, your mom, told me to." he closed his eyes and let out a huge sigh expecting Rachel to cry or something, but when he realised he hadn't heard anything he looked up, she looked completely puzzled._

"_What?" she wasn't sure what he was saying, hell she didn't know what he was saying. "Huh?"_

_He sighed again. "Rachel your mom sent me because she wanted." he stopped, looking at her, her doing the Finn Face. A couple of weeks ago Rachel told Finn to sing in A minor and he had no clue what that was and pulled a Finn Face, of course Rachel didn't like Jesse calling it a Finn Face but he just does it behind her back._

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I mean that your mom only sent me to." he paused; Jesse couldn't bare the thought of hurting Rachel. Even though he was only there for a mission, he still cared for her, deeply. "You mom sent me to make you listen to the tape so that you would know she was your mom." he rushed it all out, saying it in normal speed would kill him._

_Rachel didn't quite get what he said at first but then it started to repeat in her head. Mom. Sent. Me. Listen. Tape. Sent. Sent. SENT! He was sent? Sent? Rachel started to gather the pieces. She knew that it couldn't be right. No. She looked at his face for reassurance that she was right, he wasn't sent just for her to find out her mom, but his face was anything but reassuring her. He was looking down, sad, miserable. No. No. It's true? "What?" she asked with abit of annoyance in her voice._

"_Rachel I'm sor-"_

"_-No! No! You can't be?"_

_He didn't answer. He looked at her, he did just say her mom sent him and not because he wanted too, she deserves to look in the eye of the person who just broke up with her. "I'm sorry." he quietly said. He knew that wasn't enough though. It never is._

"_You're sorry?" complete annoyance in her voice._

"_Rachel I'm staying till the end of the day then I'm leaving, I'm going back to VA."_

'_I'm going back to VA' rung in Rachel's ears repeatedly. "What?" her voice started to break as tears were forming in her brown eyes. "You're going back?"_

"_Yes."_

"_I…You…But" she stuttered she couldn't get her words out because one she was this close into breaking down and crying in front of him. Two because she was a fool to not realise that he was never into her. "I have to go." she ran past Jesse nudging his shoulder with hers. Her shoulder started to kill like mad but she couldn't just say ow, she couldn't come across as weak. She just tried to ignore the pain that she was feeling in shoulder only to start to feel pain in her heart instead. She ran into the girls toilets crying her heart out._

"Hey Rach you nervous?" Finn asked as he came up from behind her.

She turned around and smiled at him. "Of course not we got it in the bag."

He returned her smile and said "Yeah because we have you."

Rachel's heart could have melted right then. She hugged him tightly then turned back to the curtains. "You know what we can beat them."

"Yep we don't need any help." he agreed as he peeked through the curtains as well.

"Hey you guys come on." Mr Schue called out to the pair.

They both turned around and followed him back to the dressing room.

Another way of Rachel forgetting Jesse when she hears his voice. Finn.

"_Rachel are you ok?" Finn asked. They were in Spanish and Rachel hadn't said a single word since she got there, she just stared into space. "Rachel?" he shook her shoulder causing her to leave her thoughts and enter reality._

"_Huh? I'm fine Finn." she quietly replied._

"_No your not."_

"_What yes I am." she looked at him, baffled, how could he know?_

"_Rachel you can't fool me. I know you to well for you to just say 'I'm fine' so what's up?"_

"_Finn." she decided not to keep saying nothing was up because as he said he knew her to well. He was her friend. Her best friend. Finn was always there for her. Wait. She can't tell him. She can't because he will probably just laugh in her face and say 'Told you so. HA. You thought I was just jealous but he was trouble. Silly Rachel.' then every time he sees her he would just laugh loudly in her face. No. Finn wouldn't do that. She's just overreacting. "Jesse." she tried to carry on but just saying his name made her want to burst out crying._

"_Jesse…?" he slowly said trying to get more out of Rachel. When she didn't say anything but just looking at him with her eyes filling up. He knew. "Jesse." he said in an angry Get-My-Revenge-On-Him tone._

"_Finn he…" her voice started to break again. What has he done to her? "He was only here because he…" she didn't get to finish off her sentence then because Finn leapt from his chair and stormed off. _

_Uh-oh._

**R-r-review =) Finn and Rachel love them ;) Good or Bad?**


	2. Thoughts

**Thank you for the reviews :)**

"There you guys are! We were about to send a search party for you two." Quinn said from the corner of the room. She was sitting on the blue sofas feed her baby. **(A/N I am so glad that Quinn does have baby Drizzle in the last ep :)**** I don't think she keeps it or where her she has it before or after regionals. So I put it as she keeps it for a bit and has the baby before.)**

"Yeah where were you?" Kurt chimed in from his chair, staring at them through the mirror while doing his hair.

"Oh well I saw Rachel watching VA so I came up to her and we got talking." Finn answered first.

"Yeah." Rachel agreed. "I was just checking out the competition." she simply said.

"Yeah, checking out Jesse's black eye more like." Santana quickly muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Santana in matter of fact I was no checking out Jesse's black eye." Rachel informed her.

_So there Rachel was. In Spanish sitting on the side of her seat, alone. Finn just stormed off. Rachel sitting there feeling mixed emotions:_

_-Confused: what was Finn going to do? It was obvious he was going to Jesse; he had said several times, all in different ways, that he cares for her deeply so it was clear he's going to him._

_-Anger: she was dumped at her lockers! Lockers. Not over dinner or something formal, something like that Rachel thought Jesse would do, but he didn't. He just said it plainly at school in front of others._

_-Guilty: Finns going to get into trouble over something that Rachel could have stopped. She could have not told him in Spanish, outside or maybe after school when Jesse would be leaving but she hadn't thought that he would react like he did._

_-Heart-broken: clearly this was obvious. Jesse the boy she thought was perfect for her, the boy who was reaching for the same goals as her, the boy who had so much in common with her, the boy she loved. The boy she thought who loved her back._

"_Rachel?" Mr Schue started to talk. "Where did Finn just go?" he asked._

"_Ermm Mr Schue I think I should go follow him just to check if he's ok." Rachel had to get out of that class, her thoughts were eating her up inside. She needed a distraction._

"_Well Rachel I don't think you should we have a test soon and you need all the revision time you can get."_

"_Mr Schue I'm already ahead of the others I think I will be fine." Rachel protested._

"_Yes but still." Rachel needs to get out of there!_

"_Fine, can I make it up at lunch?"_

"_Well." Mr Schue hesitated. Rachel started to look really sad, which wasn't hard, trying to get him to change his mind. "Fine." he eventually gave in. The look works?_

_Rachel rushed out of the door she didn't even bother to pack up all her things, she was pretty sure she left her pens, pencils and rubber in class. It doesn't matter though. Not when someone is hunting down someone else. She couldn't bare the thought of Finn turning on Jesse. Yes, Jesse deserves to feel the pain Rachel does at the moment, but not physically hurt. Not by punching. Not by Finn. The thought of them two fighting, hitting, kicking, and tackling each other made Rachel feel sick in the stomach. Really sick. Rachel was frantically running down all the corridors, she knew which room to go to, she knew Jesse's timetable off by heart. Art. That was the lesson he had. She reached to the art department running wildly looking through Jesse's art room. She stopped, at the door, and run her hands down her clothes and hair. She entered with almost everyone's eyes burning on her; she raised her head and walked over to the teacher, trying to act as if nothing was causing her any distress or pain._

"_Excuse me." she patted on Mr Clarke's shoulder making him turn around._

"_Yes?"_

"_Is Jesse St James here?"_

"_Ermm." he scanned the room looking for the required boy. "Sorry he's not here today."_

_What?_

"_Oh." oh no. "Well thank you anyway, sorry to disturb you." she smiled then quickly made an exit out of the room. Where is he? He didn't go to his lesson? This was bad. Bad news. That means Finn could find him before Rachel does. He could be in the boys toilets, Finn could be waiting for him, waiting to pounce on him. Oh no. Jesse why couldn't you just go to your lesson, like you're supposed to do. Rachel began to run like a mad man again this time even more desperate to find him. Anyone. She wanted to stop Finn. Warn Jesse. Rachel couldn't help it, she had a feeling in her stomach which was worse than just feeling sick, she started to lose hope, it started to disappear, vanish, in ever finding Jesse before Finn does. Rachel must have ran around the whole school twice but still no sign of either of them. None. She even bravely peeked through to boy's toilets to see if they were there, no one was there to see her, but they weren't there either. Which makes it so harder to find them. Where were they? Where was Jesse? Finn? Rachel decided to take sanctuary. She can't stop this. What was she thinking? She ran towards the auditorium room and sat on the stage, alone. It was only then she saw a black figure sitting in the chairs in front of her. She approached the figure slowly and calmly, but her heart was doing anything but that, she was so badly hoping it was one of them, the figure hadn't seen her as she walked towards them. The figure's head was slumped, looking down at the floor. Thankfully, when she was close enough to see the detail on this person, she was not disappointed._

"_Jesse?" she whispered to him causing his head to shoot up._

"_Rachel?" he turned to face her, once he was sure it was her he stood up and properly faced her. "What are you doing here?"_

"_I could ask you the same question." she laughed as she started to cry, tears of relief. She had found one of them._

"_I couldn't go to lesson." he looked down again, he seriously must get neck ache from looking at the floor constantly. "I wouldn't be able to concentrate anyway."_

_Rachel felt like her heart was breaking, breaking at the sound of his voice, his voice full of sadness. "Why?" as soon as the words passed from her lips Rachel mentally kicked herself for asking such a stupid question. 'Why?' well its not going to be about not getting a part in an audition will it?_

"_Because I hurt you." he simply stated. It was a fact. He had hurt Rachel. Hurt her so bad and he knew about it. He brought on the pain. It was his fault._

_She didn't respond to his answer. How could she. What would she say? 'Yeah you hurt me badly Jesse how could you? How could you hurt someone and just watch them?' No, she couldn't say that. She couldn't say anything. His words had left her speechless. He couldn't concentrate because he hurt her. He felt bad. All this time Rachel thought he had no feelings. He was just doing it for kicks, but he felt awful. No. No. He should of anyway. It was absolutely cruel what he did. Rachel started to fight the feeling that was growing in her heat. She can't take him back. She can't. She was so consumed in her thoughts she completely forgot why she wanted to find him until Jesse brought her out of her head._

"_Why are you here?" Jesse asked again but he felt like kicking himself for his question. It was obvious like Rachel's one._

"_I came here to warn you." she quickly said. Ok maybe that's not what Jesse thought the answer would be._

"_Warn me?" he was confused._

"_Yes. Finns com-" she never finished that sentence because Finn had slammed the doors open. His eyes wondered to Rachel for a couple of seconds but then locked onto Jesse's. Everything went in slow-motion after that. Finn slowly charging his way to Jesse, while Jesse just stood there. Rachel on the other hand was in complete shock, she couldn't move. She was frozen still. Then time caught up with her and everything started to go back to normal. The slow-motion was fading. She shook her head and forced herself to move, she moved herself in front of Jesse just in time. Finn abruptly stopped but his face was still bursting with anger. It was radiating in all directions._

"_FIINNN! PLEASE DON'T." she screamed at him pleading him to stop._

_Finn looked from Jesse to Rachel, his eyes starting to soften. She's getting through to him. She's going to talk him out of this. At least that's what she thought she was going to do until Jesse decided to open his mouth._

"_Rachel leave it."_

_She turned instantly at the sound of his voice. He said what! She was scared. Scared for both of them. Jesse and Finn. They maybe two lads that she loves but they are also two lads who are incredibly stupid. "What?" she finally asked. Her voice breaking again._

"_Rachel look you can't stop this."_

'_You can't stop this' isn't that the exact same thoughts she had earlier? 'You can't stop this. You cant stop this. You can't stop THIS.' she really can't stop it. She must have been wrapped up in her thoughts for a long time because she soon realised that they weren't there anymore. Jesse wasn't in front of her, trying to act like a knight. Finn wasn't behind her raging with hate. Where were they? She looked slightly upwards to see to boys standing in a Stand-Off position. Uh-oh._

"_NOOO!" she screamed as they made contact and started to connect knuckles to jaws. "FINNN! STOP. PLEASE." she called out, tears rolling freely from her eyes. She ran to the stage pulling Finn away from Jesse, but he just resisted, moving her away with his arm. "JESSEE GO!" she was screaming her head off but it seems that neither of them were listening to her. She kneeled to the floor as she watched the most important boys in her life, beating the pulp out of each other. She and Jesse were right she can't stop it. She looked at Finn and tried one more time to make him stop._

"_Finn please stop. Please. Do it for me." he looked up at her when she said the last sentence. She gave him the look that she gave Mr Schue in Spanish, which made Finn stop, but not before he could get his last punch that hit his eye. That's when she heard a thud. She looked down, with her face streaming with a mix of make-up and tears around her, to see Jesse on the floor. "JESSEEE!" she ran towards him kneeling by his side. Rachel sobbed harder as she saw Jesse covered in all different kinds of colour, pink, red, blue, purple e.t.c. She couldn't stand it. His eye was the worst part it was all red and looked really soar. She turned to Finn who was standing over her, panting heavily, when her eyes met his she saw nothing but anger and hate in them. It made her die a little inside to see Finn's eyes like that, usually they're filled with love and beauty, she had only seen Finn like this when he found out about Quinn but it was never this violent. She's never seen so much hatred in someone. She spun her head back to the injured senior in her arms. She couldn't look at Finn right now, he disappointed her._

_Simple as that._

"I can't wait now!" Mercedes burst out in the changing rooms with the other girls.

"I know right? Aww man I totally love our outfits as well. Who knew Schue had a taste in fashion?" Santana said, that was the first time anyone had seen her smile genuinely.

Everyone laughed at Santana's comment on Schue's taste in fashion.

**R-r-review =) Ahh I really can't do big scenes =/ Good, Bad?**


	3. Do you mean it?

**Awwww I love all the reviews you guys :)**

**On with the chapter ;)**

"You guys dressed?" Mike asked from the outside of the girls changing rooms.

"Nearly." Tina called out.

"Well you guys have to hurry, Schue is getting nervous because you guys aren't there. He's asking us really random questions. Please come out now. You need to save us." Mike pleaded from the doors.

_Rachel gently brushed some of Jesse's brown, curly locks from his face. She cried so hard. How could Finn do this? Feeling or no feelings you don't do this! She felt anger bubbling up inside her. Finn did mean well its just… Well that's the thing. How could she justify his action? Yes, he loves Rachel and will protect her but knock a person out because he broke up with someone? She wasn't even crying in Spanish. That just proves how much Rachel means to him. Which is touching but when a guy, you love, knocks out you ex-boyfriend, who you still happen to love as well, it gets complicated. The life of Rachel Berry._

"_Go. Get. Help." she slowly said to Finn but still looking at Jesse._

_He didn't say anything; he could sense she was pissed off with him, so he just left. He started to walk but it soon broke out into a full sprint out of the auditorium._

"_Don't worry Jesse, help is coming." Rachel whispered to him. Yep. It's official. She is in love with two boys. Jesse, the male version of herself. Finn, the gorgeous drum face, __**(A/N come on people the drum face ahhhhh **__**LOVE**__** it.) **__his voice might not be like Jesse's but even Jesse couldn't sing the kind of songs the way Finn does and seem to sing it with pure feelings. Rachel knows that feelings for Jesse just mean getting hurt, he wasn't into her! He was only here because of her mom. It was that simple. He did say he couldn't concentrate with hurting her. No. Rachel had been down this road too many times to keep re-visiting it. So why was it so easy to keep going down that path?_

_Mr Schue came bursting in, distracting Rachel from her thoughts, and was followed by Finn. Mr Schue quickly ran up to where Rachel and Jesse were, his face was completely shocked. He looked straight at Rachel after taking in what Jesse currently looked like. Finn was standing near the steps of the stage, hands in his pockets, just staring at what he had just done. Punched and knocked out Jesse. Made Rachel hate him, lets be honest she was giving him hate eyes, he knew this from the 'Gives You Hell' fiasco. She hates him big time._

"_What happened?" Schue asked while kneeling down beside Rachel, he examined Jesse's cuts and bruises._

"_I…Fi…ermm." Rachel couldn't speak. It was unbelievable second time in one day! What's happening to the world?_

"_It was me." Finn blurted out from behind them. Both, Rachel and Mr Schue, turned at the sound of his voice. Both with horrified looks plastered on their faces, but for different reasons. Rachel: he just admitted to punching someone. Mr Schue: Finn was capable of that? Yeah he had seen the Puck fight but that was nothing, really, compared to this. "I did it." Finn continued._

"Done." Brittany smiled as she opened the door.

"Finally. Come on." he turned on his heels and casually strutted back towards the other boys.

"You ready?" Brittany asked while turning back to face the rest of the girls.

"Brittany were not performing yet." Santana replied as she walked out of the changing rooms.

"Yeah but the boys are going to see us aren't they?"

"Oh yeah." Santana said while quickly running her hands through her dress then to through her hair.

The rest of the girls laughed at Santana's sudden reaction after what Brittany had said. "Santana calm down." Quinn laughed then walked over to her and put her hand on her shoulder. "The lads are going to be gob-smacked." she smiled.

"Yep so true." Mercedes agreed. "Hey Quinn where's your baby?"

"Oh she's with my mom. She's sleeping at the moment. Like an angel." Quinn's smile grew even larger at the thought of her darling baby.

"_Finn." Mr Schue sighed as he got up and walked over to him. "Why?"_

"_He- he." Finn couldn't seem to speak either._

"_Finn look, I have to report this. You do know that, don't you?"_

"_Yeah." he looked down feeling pretty ashamed of himself. I guess you really do, do crazy things when you're in love._

"_Right well Rachel." he turned to face her. "Could you take Finn to Mr Figgins office? I'll be in there in a bit. Oh and also on your way there if any teachers pass you by tell them to come here immediately." Mr Schue asked with a bit of worry in his voice._

'_Could you take Finn to Mr Figgins office?' Uh-oh. Rachel alone with Finn? Rachel knew that this would be the most awkward walk in her life. "Ok." she replied as she turned back to face Jesse and kissed him on the forehead, which made Finn feel REALLY guilty for what he just did. She still has feelings for him. He just beat a guy that Rachel liked. Liked? Or loved? Rachel got up and started to walk towards Finn but instead of stopping in front of him, she just walked past him expecting him to follow her. She couldn't say no to taking Finn. It wasn't really a question Mr Schue asked. It was an order._

_Finn walked behind Rachel feeling stupid, guilty and heart-broken. How could he not have seen the signs? The way she rushed to him after he was punched. Yeah ok, he did fall down but he was her ex. He broke her heart didn't he? Just watching her walk in front of him not turning back to check whether he was still behind her. Not once. It killed him. He wants her to look back. Look at him. He hates it when she's upset. It breaks his heart. Really breaks his heart. He can't stand it anymore, he can't take it. He reaches one arm out towards Rachel and stops her by placing his hand on her shoulder._

"_Rachel I'm sorry." he meant it. He meant very word. He's truly sorry._

_Rachel paused but carried on walking. She wasn't going to talk about this now. Not here. Not in the middle of the corridor. Not when people can see them. It would just end up with her crying her eyes out in front of him._

"_Rachel." Finn said again after Rachel shrugged his hand off her shoulder and carried on walking. He placed his hand on her shoulder again but this time firmer. "Please. At least look at me."_

_She still didn't turn, even at his plead, so Finn walked in front of Rachel and looked her dead in the eyes. Rachel couldn't even look him in the eye anymore, after seeing his eyes filled to the brim with hate, she just couldn't see him in the same way. Not anymore._

"_Oh my God. You can't even look at me in the eye can you?" Finn started to sound a bit annoyed that she was looking anywhere but him. She still wasn't replying but Finn kept persisting, he kept trying to make her talk but every time he opened his mouth and let words escape his lips it was just making Rachel get angrier. She had no idea why. Maybe because he was getting annoyed with her when he was the one who just beat up someone. "Rachel. Look at me. I can't believe your doing this to me."_

_He said what?_

_Can't believe __**your**__ doing this to __**me**__? To him? HIM? That just made Rachel flip mentally. She's doing this to him? HA! That is rich. Really rich coming from him. He just beat up her ex, which she loves, and he says he can't believe she's doing this to him? Not talking to him is nothing. Beating somebody up, on the other hand, is. With all these thoughts running through Rachel's head, she couldn't help it. How could Finn say something like that? He has a nerve. Blood boiling, that was it, he just pushed her over the edge. Over the cliff._

"Hey you guys." Mercedes greeted the boys as the girls entered.

The boy's jaws dropped. Literally. They wore strapless, white dresses, which had one black, thick stripe on the side. White, high-heels matching their dresses, with a single black stripe in the middle of them. Their hair was in loose curls with a white ribbon in there hair. They too the boys breath away. Completely away.

"Err." Matt spoke first, well if you can call 'Err' speaking. He cleared his throat and attempted to try to speak again but the same thing just happened.

"You guys look." Puck decided to speak on Matt's behalf. "You look gorgeous." he finished.

"More than gorgeous, they look stunning." Finn added.

"No, there isn't even a word to describe it." Artie said.

"_Me?" Rachel snapped at Finn. She didn't want to but she did. "Me? How could I do this to you? What about you punching my ex to the pulp? Huh? What about that? Or what about you finding your 'inner rockstar'? Hmm?" yep. She's dragging the past into this. "Oh no what about you kissed me when you had a girlfriend? Twice. Or what about when you used me for your football scholarship? How about when you lied to me about Santana and you?" Rachel didn't like where this was going. "Oh yeah I know about you and Santana, want to know how? From people talking about it casually in the corridor. Yeah. Not from you. You didn't have the nerve to tell me?" yeah Rachel doesn't like where this was going one bit. "So don't tell me how I can do this to you when this is nothing compared to what you have done to me, Finn Hudson." Finn Hudson? What was that?_

_Finn was completely shocked from Rachel's sudden out burst. "Fine yeah maybe I have treated to bad. No not bad like dirt. I'm sorry for that. I still care for you. You know that Rachel."_

"_Do I?" Whoa, what was that? Rachel couldn't believe what she had just said. She didn't like how her words where coming out without any thought. Like word-vomit. _**(A/N Mean Girls I know =P)**

_Finn would have protested but he sensed more was coming from Rachel's mouth. He wasn't wrong._

"_You know what I don't even know why I kept forgiving you. I treat you like a friend and you treat me like dirt, treat you as someone who means the world to me, which is true, and how do I get treated back? Dirt. Finn I can't be anything with you without you treating me like dirt. You treat me worst than dirt. I'd rather be treated like dirt than the way you treat me, Finn." what? She wants him to treat her like dirt?_

_Rachel was mentally telling herself 'shut up Rachel. Oh my God. You're making it worse. STOP!' yet even though she would keep telling herself this, she still didn't listen. "I wonder sometimes why I'm still friends with you." Rachel blurted out. OH MY GOD! Rachel so badly wanted to take back those words. She wanted to just shove them back in her mouth and pretend she never said anything. Maybe Finn didn't hear, her voice was a little dry after her whole big speech earlier. Finn had heard. He heard every single word. His mouth started to tremble. His eyes watering. He was about to cry. He started to look up trying to keep his tears in which ended up unsuccessful. Rachel felt really bad now. Why did she have to say that?_

"_You don't mean that." Finn quietly said. "You don't mean that at all." tears falling free from his face, rolling down to his chin then falling off onto his shirt._

_Even though Rachel wanted to reverse time and take back the words, it didn't mean that she didn't mean it because she did. She meant it. "I do." she replied then carried on walking, tears forming in her eyes._

**R-r-review =) Finn&Rachel. Good, bad?**


	4. Take a walk with Quinn

**Don't own Glee or any characters :(**

**Thank you for the reviews as always =)**

"_What?" Finn asked after Rachel pushed past him and continued to walk towards Mr Figgin's office. She just ignored him, he wiped his eyes quickly then ran up to her and grabbed her elbow making her stop again. She finally turned to face him, he could see she was holding with all her strength to not cry, her eyes filling up. "What?" he asked again._

_She finally looked into his, red puffy, blood-shot eyes. They were so different from the anger that once consumed his them; they were vulnerable, lonely, sad. Oh no. First Jesse, now Finn? Why does she want two boys so badly? This time last year she hadn't even known either of them, she would have been lucky if a boy did so much as look in her direction, now she has two boys who she is madly in love with and only one, from what she knows, is in love with her! What happened during that past year? She didn't change her clothes. She didn't change her personality. She didn't change all together. So why was it that she wanted to boys badly then she has wanted anything else in her life? "Lets just carry on, were nearly there." she said trying to release herself from Finn's grip he had on her forearm. He wouldn't give. If anything, he tightens his grip._

"_I don't care about that Rachel. What do you mean, you meant it?" he seemed to be asking the same question about fifty times already. "What did you mean Rachel?" then there was a long awkward pause as Rachel tried to gather her words while Finn was growing impatient to Rachel's lack of communication. "Rachel? Tell me?" he begged. He was so close to crying, he could feel his eyes welling up yet again. Rachel was definitely going to cry soon, there was a shiny glaze surrounding her eyes. How could she just stay so silent when the second she blinks tears will begin to fall down her face? How could she? That was the only thing Finn couldn't get._

"_I…" Rachel suddenly began to talk causing Finn to be startled, he was beginning to get used to the uncomfortable silence. "Finn." she looked up at him, after a long time. "You." she took a deep sigh then continued. "You, you just…" Rachel didn't know what to say. How could she explain to someone that she loves them yet at the same time hates them?_

'_Finn why do you make things so hard?' Rachel thought to herself. 'I thought that you were someone I could confine in, but now I just don't know. That's what I should say to him. He was someone that I trusted with my life but after that, I just don't know. I just don't know anymore. Ahh why is life so complicated? Why couldn't it go back like before without any fights just back to me being alone? No Finn. No Jesse. Jesse. Oh God! Jesse! I need to get back to him.' _

"_Finn we can't talk right now." Rachel said finally forcing Finn to release her, which he did eventually, and she began to walk to Mr Figgin's office. She didn't know whether Finn was following her or not. Maybe she should have checked earlier because when she got to Figgin's room, she turned to see no one. Finn wasn't there anymore. Uh-oh._

"Guys you look great." Mr Schue complemented the girls on their dresses. "Well come on then shall we prepare our voices and quickly go toilet or-"

"Mr Schue relax." Tina interrupted. "Were not going on till another hour. We'll be fine." she reassured as she took a seat next to Artie.

"Yeah Mr Schue you need to chill." Finn added.

"That's rich." Santana, again, muttered under her breath but still loud enough for them to her. They all stared at her looking life she just admitted to killing someone they knew dearly or something. "What? Its true." she shrugged. "Finn said that Schue need to chill when he lashed out on Jesse for hurting someone. Again.

"_Rachel was there something you wanted?" Mr Figgins asked from his seat._

"_What?" she spun her head around to face the principle. "Ermm no sorry." she turned on her heels and walked/ran out of his doors. Where was Finn? Where did he go? Finn. Why do you have to make things difficult? Rachel didn't spend much time wondering where Finn decided to vanish off because she raced back towards the auditorium to see Jesse, only to see him being pulled out of the doors on a stretcher. Rachel's mind went completely blank as she saw a still, lifeless body laying down on a moveable bed, being pulled by 3 men, that was it. Rachel could have broke down crying at the very moment, she watched as they rolled him out into the outside. She couldn't move she was fixated in her spot; it was as if she was nailed there or something. Was it that bad? Did Finn cause that much hurt? Will Jesse be ok? Rachel stood there for God knows how many minutes, probably about 30, until she was approached by a familiar face that came from behind her._

"_Hey." Quinn smiled at her as Rachel turned around to face Quinn._

"_Hi?" she asked as she quickly wiped her tears, which just started to over-flow._

"_You ok?" of course she was clueless to the whole dilemma, all she knew was that Jesse was unconscious._

"_Yes. You?" she tried to make out like nothing was wrong. Nothing had happened._

"_Yeah I'm fine. Hey Rachel have you seen Finn?" Finn. Quinn didn't know why Jesse was knocked out, it was because of Finn. Finn was the reason he was now in a hospital and why Rachel is heart broken and distraught._

"_No. Sorry." Rachel wasn't sorry. She was glad she didn't know where he was hiding, that was the conclusion Rachel had come up with. He was hiding. Because she doesn't know what she would of done if, she knew the whereabouts of Finn Hudson. "Why?"_

"_Oh nothing it's just that Mr Schue is looking for him, something to do with Jesse apparently. He thinks he beat him up. Crazy right?" Quinn laughed quite hard at the thought of Finn beating someone like that! She wouldn't be laughing if she knew that it was the truth. Finn did do that._

_Rachel didn't answer Quinn's question leaving Quinn to clock on with what she was saying. "No?" she asked after getting Rachel's sudden quietness. "Finn? No? Seriously? Oh my God." Quinn's smile suddenly faded. She knew Quinn wouldn't be laughing if she found out about Finn. "That's going to go around the school. God I'd hate to be Finn right now."_

"Hey Rachel?" Mr Schue said trying to get Rachel's attention. She was staring at VA through the curtains again.

"Yeah." she turned her head round at the sound of Mr Schue's voice.

"What are you doing?" he asked while approaching her to take a quick peek himself. "Wow. They're good."

"Mr Schue." Rachel gasped at Mr Schue's comment.

"What?" he turned around to see Rachel's shocked expression. "They are." he shrugged then turned back to the performers on the stage. Both Rachel and Mr Schue were watching their opposition as they sang and danced all around the stage.

"_So does no-one know where he is?" Quinn asked as they sat down out-side on the bench, she of course sitting down slower because of the baby and all._

"_Nope." Rachel didn't really want to talk about Finn at the moment. She was still taking in of when Jesse was being pushed out of the doors. Lying perfectly still._

"_Oh Finn. You're making it worse for your self if you're hiding." Quinn said as if Finn was right there and she was saying it to him right in his face. "But why?"_

_Now Rachel definitely did not want to talk about this. "Oh well you know." Rachel shrugged. "Probably some misunderstanding." which if you think about it is true. Finn misunderstood that Jesse felt bad about breaking it up with Rachel. He couldn't concentrate on anything else._

"_Misunderstanding?" one of her eyebrows rose. She wasn't buying any of it._

"_Yeah." Rachel plainly responded but not looking at Quinn anymore because Rachel can't lie to someone that long. Like in the practice room when Finn asked her about the Jesse fiasco about her dating him, she said no at first but later gave in. Rachel couldn't lie for long._

"_Rachel?" Quinn has figured it. She's lying. Rachel wasn't even looking at Rachel and she still found out. She must give it way in body language or something. She needs to practice on that._

_Rachel gave in quickly, another thing she has to work on, and told Quinn everything form Jesse breaking up with her and how it was her mother who sent him to her saying to Finn that she wasnt sure why she was still friends with him._

"_But Rachel you shouldn't have said that you do mean that! You just don't. I mean do you really feel that way?" Quinn asked somewhat interested in this topic._

"_Yes." Rachel quietly said._

"_Well come on." Quinn got up, turned to Rachel, and put her hand out._

_Rachel looked at her as if she sprouted a tail behind her. "What?" she looked at her hand and how it was stretched out for her to take it._

"_Come on." Quinn shook her hand a little to get Rachel to take it. "It wont bite." she joked as she saw Rachel staring from her face to her hand. "Come on Rachel. Do you want me to drag you because I will? Doesn't matter if I'm pregnant or not." there was the old Quinn. The Cheerio Quinn. The mean Quinn. Though Rachel did have to admit it, it was refreshing to have old Quinn sometimes. Only sometimes. Not constantly because then she would just get on your nerves and it would be a bit too much like old times._

"_Fine." Rachel gave in taking Quinn's hand and getting up. "So where are we going?" Rachel asked as she saw Quinn walking in front of her._

"_You'll see." Quinn smiled at Rachel then walked off._

_**R-r-review =) Quinn&Rachel friendship Aww ;) Good, Bad?**_

**_Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes it's 1:20am here and I was typing this anyways I'm going to sleep now ;)_**


	5. Gym

**Thank you for the reviews they were appreciated :)**

VA had just finished one of many songs that Jesse was lead singer in, Rachel and Mr Schue still staring at them in amazement. They are good. Too good. They watched as the lights faded from the stage and VA switched positions to get ready for their next number.

"I can't watch this anymore." Rachel tore her gaze from the stage, walked over to a wooden supporting pole, leaving Mr Schue who was still looking at VA, and leaned against the pole. "I can't believe they are doing Bohemian Rhapsody!"

"Neither can I but you have to admit they are good at it, Rachel?" Mr Schue closed the curtains and moved to where Rachel was.

"Mr Schue! You are supposed to be supporting us not telling us how good the opposing team is!" Rachel said in horror. "And to answer you question: No I think we could do it so much better, they may have won 5 times in a row before or whatever but we are better."

"Ok." Mr Schue held his hands out to his chest in a surrender position. "I was just saying."

"Well don't."

"Anyway we still have another team, Aural Intensity." Mr Schue reminded.

"Oh yeah."

"_Seriously __Quinn__ please tell me where are you taking me?" Rachel whined to the pregnant blonde-haired girl who was dragging her by her arm. "We've been walking for about 10 minutes. What is it you want to show me?"_

"_If __you keep whining I will add another __10 minutes on." Quinn simply replied._

"_Ok, forget I even said anything."_

"_Don't you think I have tried__?"__ Ok old Quinn is becoming a bit annoying now. Rachel wants new Quinn back. At first when Quinn wanted to take a walk with her, Rachel thought she actually wanted to go somewhere! Not just, keep walking around the school 500 times! Rachel was just getting bored she has important things, that she needs to settle, she cant waste her time on having a little walkabout can she? Theres Jesse. She needs to get to the hospital to check if he's ok, he he's hurt, if he's even conscious. She didn't have Finn on her mind. He's already done too much damage. Yeah Finn was hiding and Rachel did want to know where and if he was ok or whether he was caught yet but Jesse was her top priority and it would stay that way._

"_Quinn if this walk does not have a__ purpose I would like to leave now." Rachel kept on whining at her even after Quinn's threat._

"_Don't worry I'm sure were __near__ there."_

"_What is there? We have passed this spot 4__ times already! We would have already seen there 3 times."_

"_Rachel if you talk one…" Quinn started__._

"_Quinn?" a male voice called from behind __the couple._

"_Oh my God who is that?" Rachel __backed away slightly. "Wh-who is there? Show who you are." Rachel's voice starting to fill with fear and panic._

"_Relax Berry." the figure approached them. To Quinn and Rachel's surprise, it was Puck._

"_Puck? What are you doing here?" Quinn asked steeping forward him._

"_Well I-" Puck started only to be cut off from Rachel._

"_-__Wait. We didn't come here to see Noah? Well if it wasn't him why are we here?" Rachel walked up towards the ex cheerleader and the jock._

"_Rachel we were meant to go-"_

"_Huh? Where __were__ you guys going?" Puck asked._

"_Well we were-"_

"_My thoughts exactly Noah. Quinn __where__ are we going?"_

"_WELL IF YOU LET ME FINISH AND NOT CUT ME OFF EVERY TIME I OPEN MY MOUTH AND TRY AND EXPLAIN TO YOU TWO!" Quinn exploded and shouted toward the pair._

_Both Rachel and Noah fell silent, eyebrows raised to the highest they could be on their faces and mouths dropping wide open. "What?" Quinn noticed how shocked they looked to see her shouting so much. "Oh please I can go louder. So like I was saying, Rachel" she turned to face the stunned brunette. "I asked you to come on a walk with me because I wanted to find Finn." Rachel's mouth suddenly went up. She wanted to find who? Quinn noticed Rachel's reaction and carried on. "Ok I know you probably don't want to find him but you have to solve this. You did say that you don't know why your still friends with him, Rachel. Come on. Look I-"_

"_What? You said that?" Puck turned to Rachel with a face of horror plastered on his face. "Rachel." he gasped. "Tut tut." he shook his head slowly._

"_Well excuse me Puckerman __but we aren't all perfect are we? What about you and Quinn? Or you using Mercedes? Don't judge me Noah when you have flaws too." Rachel snapped at Puck._

"_You know what? I'll let you off for saying that this time seen as Jesse did break up with you. Only this time though. Say it again and I won't be kind." Puck warned Rachel._

"_Wait how did you know about Jesse?" Rachel didn't know how that could have got out. The only people who knew were her, Jesse, Quinn and Finn. Well her mother knows. Mother. What kind of mother does that? She didn't even want to know her in the end. They are just acquaintances from afar. How would Noah know? Quinn couldn't of told him, Rachel's been with her ever since she told her. Seriously, how would he know?_

"_Yeah Puck how did you know?" Quinn joined in. she was just as curious as Rachel was._

"_Oh well…ermm" Puck stuttered. He stared at the two females and how there was determination in their eyes. How Quinn put her hands on her hip and standing in an impatient pose. Rachel growing annoyed, her sighing constantly trying to get him to carry on. "Ermm well you see ladies its like this." he continued thinking charm would spin them off into another direction and wouldn't remember what they were on about before. It didn't work._

"_Noah Puckerman you tell me now how you found out about me and Jesse." Rachel demanded, walking over to Noah and grabbed two fistfuls of his t-shirt. Yeah she was smaller than he was and he could easily just flick her off his shirt but he couldn't he was too scared of her to dare touch her. "NOW!" she screamed at him. Puck looked around trying to find help, if anyone was around to see Rachel scaring the Puck maestro. Completely deserted. That was good, no-one could tease him about this, no-one could spread this around school. His rep would still be intact. However, no-one could help him against the small brunette with freaky eyes. Wait he's scared of Rachel? Rachel Berry?_

"_Puck?" Quinn brought him out of his imagination of Rachel kicking his butt. "Answer her."_

"_Ladies." he smirked thinking it would make it better. If anything, it made it worse._

"_Do not try and get all 'Ladies'." Rachel tried to do an impression of Puck when he smirked and said ladies. It was awful. "Tell me now or I swear I will-"_

"_Fine." Puck didn't really want to hear what Rachel was going to do. "Alright." Rachel released him from the hold she had him in and let go of his t-shirt. He's scared of Rachel Berry? This is so messed up. He shouldn't be scared of a girl who was weaker than he was. Quinn yeah ok she was pregnant and hormones make her go insane but she's pregnant. She has an excuse. So does Rachel though. If you think about it. If he tells her, she will flip. She will literally tear his head off though. "I know about you and Jesse because." he sighed. Bye life as he knows it. "Finn told me."_

"Mr Schue?" Rachel turned to her Spanish teacher. "Do you think our numbers are anything close to theirs." Rachel didn't even need to emphasize on _theirs_ because he knew.

"What? Yeah of course they are."

"Well it's just that I-"

"-Hey guys." Artie rolled towards them in his wheelchair.

"Hey Artie." Rachel smiled sweetly at him.

"Hey Artie what's up?" Mr Schue asked.

"Nothing I was just wondering where you were. You keep disappearing on us Rachel." Artie joked.

"Oh sorry." Rachel apologised to him.

"No it's alright so anyway you checked out the competition?" he noticed how the curtains were slightly swaying from when Mr Schue closed them.

"Yeah." Mr Schue sighed. "Look guys we can do it because we are New Directions and even if we don't win them, at least we know it won't be because of lack of effort will it?"

"No it will be lack of the talent." Rachel muttered quite depressingly.

"Rachel." Artie tilted his head slightly towards the left. "We have enough talent to compete with them that's why were here."

Rachel took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "I guess."

Music started from behind the curtains as the next songs was starting and the crowd cheering at them as several lights flashed on them from every angle.

"_WHAT?" Rachel screamed right in his ear. For a small girl she really does have a voice on her._

"_What?" Quinn asked aswel but not loud and in his ear like a certain Miss Berry. "You and Finn are on speaking terms again?"_

"_Yeah. I mean after we got that job in Sheets 'N' Things, Mr Schue's ex wife, what's her name? Terri that's it. Well her and Finn got to talking, he wanted to get over you apparently, Quinn." Quinn looked quite shocked. He was trying to get over her? "And she was all like you need to just speak to her. That's why he came up to you and was saying all that stuff a couple of weeks ago."_

"_Oh. That's what it was about?" Quinn asked._

"_Yeah, well anyway we just started to talk and next thing you know were on speaking terms again. It's not like before obviously but it's nice to be able to talk to him. Anyway I guess were becoming more as friends seen as he confined in me so yeah it's nice to-"_

"_Wait he confined in you?" Rachel asked. She picks up on the littlest things._

"_Yeah."_

"_What did he say?"_

"_Oh." Shit. "He told __me about the whole fight and how angry he was. How he never wanted to stop punching him for what he did to you."_

_What?_

"_He said he could have killed that bastard but when he saw the shock and worry in your eyes, Rachel. It killed him. He saw how scared you were and he wanted to stop. He didn't want to scare you its just that well it was Jesse. Personally I would have beaten the shit out of that kid." both Rachel and Quinn looked at Puck with one eyebrow raised. "What? He annoyed me aswel you know? Hey, think about it if he annoyed me and I'm not in love with Rachel what about Finn? He's must of flipped or something." Puck paused imagining what must have been going through Finn's mind at the time. "Yeah anyway" Puck shook his head. "He came to me after when I was in the gym, alone, working out. Gotta keep these guns pumped." he flexed his arm in front of the blonde and brunette._

"_Puck we don't care about your guns." Quinn snorted. Puck stared at her as if she had admitted to killing someone. Who doesn't care about his guns? Everyone does. "Look just carry on with you and Finn."_

"_Oh well yeah he was all pumped and he sat on the bench opposite me, I stopped lifting weights and asked him what he was doing here. He didn't answer me instantly he just started to lift weights quickly. Trust me it was quick, I have never seen anyone lift weights that fast, and they were heavy ones. I just carried on doing my workout, so for about the next hour we were just lifting weights and stuff. Until he finally talked." Puck finished._

"_So you guys just worked out for an hour before he talked?" Rachel asked trying to make sense of it all._

"_Yeah. I mean look at my arms they are so big." he, yet again, lifted his arm to show the girls his muscles. "See?"_

"_You're such a guy." Quinn muttered under her breath._

"_So he confined in you?" Rachel still wanted to understand what happened in the gym._

"_Yes." Puck said with a little frustration in his voice._

"_What did you say to him?"_

"_Nothing I just sat there and listened then he said he wanted to be on his own and asked me if I would leave him alone, so I did."_

"_He's still in the gym?"_

"_Yeah last thing I knew." Puck __shrugged._

"_Let's go." Quinn announced, grabbed Rachel's hand and dragged it with her__._

"_Hey, whoa." Rachel spluttered as the two of them power walked towards the building leaving Puck in the middle of the concrete, basketball court._

"_Hey don't leave me here." Puck called from behind them and started to run towards them._

"Guys can you stop disappearing we need to stick together you know?" Santana reminded as she opened the door that was leading to the wings of the stage, where Artie, Rachel and Mr Schue were.

"You're right Santana, come on from now on we can't wonder on our own ok?" Mr Schue asked.

"Yep." Rachel walked straight to the door, which was being held opened by the brunette cheerleader.

"So where is the rest?" Artie asked Santana as he rolled beside her.

"Where you should be right now." she quickly replied.

"Ok ok calm down it was just a question." Artie held his hands up in a defensive position against his chest.

_All three of them made their way towards the gym. They stopped at the door, which had no windows on it so they couldn't peek through and see if he was there, they had to open it. Rachel took a deep breath and turned back towards Quinn and Puck. Should she go in? She's changed from earlier because earlier she didn't even want to know where he was. She was so angry with him. She didn't know what she would of done if she saw him. Now what? She wants to go in. She wants to see him. What happened during the time she last saw him? Last time she was fuming. Maybe it was after Puck telling her how he didn't want to scare her. How he loves her, which was a given. She wanted to go in but Finn wanted to be alone. He didn't want anyone to disturb him didn't he? Maybe he wanted her to come in. Maybe he only wanted to speak to her? What if he didn't want to see Rachel? What if she was going to make it worse? Ahh. How can this be so hard?_

"_What are you waiting for?" Quinn asked._

"_Guys I think I need to do this alone." Rachel stated, not answering Quinn's question._

"_Fine but just go in." Quinn gave Rachel a slight push on her back._

"_Ok ok." Rachel put her hand on the brass door handle and slowly turned it. Rachel opened the door quietly as she entered. She turned back to close the door looking at Puck's and Quinn's faces. Then she couldn't see them no more. The door was closed and she was alone with Finn. If he was in there._

_What if he lashes out on her?_

**R-r-review =) Good, Bad?**


	6. Friends? Strangers?

**Thank you for the reviews and alerts :)**

"Ok do we have everyone here?" Mr Schue asked while gathering the teenagers and making them sit in front of him.

"Mr Schue were all here." Rachel sighed. She could still hear Jesse's voice as he sang in such perfect melody. Oh no. Not again. "Can I quickly go out for a fresh air? The air in here suddenly went all hot and stuffy." Rachel explained.

"Fine but hurry."

"Thank you." Rachel quickly rose from her chair, passed the rest of the Glee clubbers including one concerned Finn Hudson who stared at her as she swiftly left the room. She needed to get out the building as soon as she could. She can still hear his voice, which instead of fading only seemed to be getting louder. His voice getting clearer. This is the right way out is not? It has to be she's following the green exit signs. How can his voice be getting clearer as if he's getting closer? It's not possible. The tone of his voice was changing though. Instead of singing, it seemed to be talking, shouting. No. No. If Rachel wasn't mistaken, she could have sworn that his voice was calling out for her. Saying her name. Ha. Obviously, he wasn't because when she turned around, expecting to see the body to match the voice, no Jesse was there. It's all in her head. That's why she needs to get some air. The air inside is causing her to hallucinate!

"_Hello? Finn?" Rachel called from the door. She didn't dare take any steps yet. Just in case if, he really did want to be alone. "Finn?" there still was no response to her callings, so Rachel finally decided that she would need to find him. She, bravely, took slow, cautious steps. Careful not to step on any clothes. It was very uncomfortable for Rachel to be in a gym in school. It was dirty, smelt awful and the air in here was very very stale. Rachel was doing all she could to stop her gagging on the fowl stench of the lads gym. "Finn are you here?" still no answer. This is going to take many months, maybe years, of therapy to get over Rachel's presence in the sweaty, humid room. Rachel decided to call one last time if there was no answer she's getting out of here. Yet still no answer to her calls so like she promised herself she turned on her heels to leave this Godforsaken place._

"_Urghh how can anyone walk in this place? You can't even see the grey floor because of all the clothes and exercise machines, which aren't placed in the most helpful of places." Rachel muttered to herself as she tried getting out of the jungle like room. She was to busy making a mental note of all the safety precautions which were being broken in that room, that she wasn't paying that much attention on where she was placing her foot because the next thing she knows is that she is on the floor, face down, after slipping on a t-shirt, smelling in sweaty, old gym clothes which made her feel sick. "Urghh you're kidding me?" Rachel started to try and get up without touching the B.O stained shirts._

"_Rachel?" a voice called from behind her. Rachel froze. It can't be? Ahh that's terrific isn't it? She was about to go and talk to a boy who she loves and she's face flat on the floor inhaling a smell that should only ever be used for torture. Oh and the best part of it is that it isn't the end of the day. She has free period then its science. What fun. Coming into science with a smell that skunks would turn their noses at. What a lovely way to see Finn. "What are you doing down there?"_

"_Huh? Oh well." Rachel pushed herself upwards trying to get off the t-shirt floor. "Nothing." she finally said dusting herself from the fabric and God knows what else she picked off the floor, off her._

"_Rachel you do know you're in the boy's locker rooms?" Finn asked slowly approaching the brunette._

"_What? Yes of course I do."_

"_Oh ok." Finn nodded still not getting it. "So why are you here?"_

'_To come and talk to you. To ask if what Noah said about you not wanting me to be scared of you was true. To ask was it really killing you inside to see me so scared. To ask if you still love me.' Rachel thought, coming up with more than enough answers to Finn's question. 'Of course he doesn't love me he lusts me. Look lets just answer his question.'_

"_I came here to find you." Rachel didn't want to lie, she wanted to talk to him and that is what she is going to do._

"_M-m-me?" he was stuttering worse than Tina was earlier in the year._

"_Yep. I need to talk to you."_

Rachel opened the entrance door finally being embraced by the cold air, which she so desperately craved at that moment, feeling freshened, cool and calm. She needed to clear her mind from all boy complications she had. Her life can't get any complicated if she tried. Just watching the outside world in all its glory was so peaceful to Rachel. Cloudless day with the sun beaming down on the busy town, people buying magazines, books e.t.c at the bookstalls. Mothers pushing prams on the pavement. Lucky kids, they know their mothers. At least have a mother figure in their lives.

"_Oh." Finn suddenly remembering how they left off on things, him running away from her, her saying how she wondered why she is still friends with him. Friends? After all, they had been through and she called them friends? Friends don't want to grab their other 'friend', hug them and kiss them, all the time. Wanting to love them like they have never been before. Wanting to be with them all the time and if not, thinking about them day and night constantly. Hoping they're thinking of you the slightest bit. Wanting them to love you the same way, you do to them. Desperate for them to show you even a little bit of love. No. They were definitely not friends. He is wanting too much from her to be friends. He had too many feelings towards her to even pretend they were friends. That was the truth. Whether Rachel knew about it or not. They were anything but friends._

"_Yeah well I…Finn it would help me a lot more if you were wearing something instead of a towel." Rachel looked the other way trying not to look at him but in the corner of her eye she could still see him. Still see his body and- No! Focus on the job at hand._

"_Oh." Finn looked down realising how he never got changed after hearing Rachel fall. "I had a shower." he informed her._

"_Yes I can see that seen as you are just in a towel and you're dripping wet plus steam is coming off you." Rachel turned her head slightly back towards him, ever so slightly, just to see if the steam, that she had pointed out, was in fact still floating way from him. It still was. Steam making him look like he's really hot. Whoa._

"_Oh I was just saying I don't normally just walk around in my towel or anything." he shrugged. "Just in case you were thinking that." he did his signature lop-sided grin, which Rachel couldn't help but return._

"_Don't worry I didn't think of it in that way." Rachel walked over to the only clean bench and carefully sat on it, making sure no dirty old clothes were near her. "You know you really need to clean this room. It's a mess! How can you people get changed in here, let alone be in here? Is beyond me."_

"_Yeah well no-one can be bothered." Finn replied, walking to his locker and pulling out some dark washed jeans out. "I'll be back in a minute." and with that he walked into the shower area to get changed, they didn't have changing rooms you just got changed where you were but Rachel was there so he wasn't going to ask her to move and he wasn't going to get changed in front of her. He just left._

_Rachel was scanning the room meanwhile, looking at how there was such a room in the school. How there was such a room in Ohio no scratch that in the world! It was disgusting. It already has 17 health violations! Just being in this room made Rachel feel dirty, smelly. When Rachel gets home, she's having a shower. Next lesson will be interesting, Rachel smelling like sweat as she enters, she can just imagine as she walks past, like in comedy strips, the flowers, they go brown and wilt. She can't wait to get out of here, leave this pigsty. Wait. Are Quinn and Noah still waiting for her? Probably are because Quinn is going to want to know all the details. That was just Quinn. She wants to know everything._

"_Hey." Finn emerged from the corner holding a white towel. "Ermm I don't have a shirt that's clean, I was ermm…going to go home and get one so…yeah." he explained as he looked at Rachel's expression when she caught the sight of him topless._

"_Oh yeah…ermm ok." Rachel felt her cheeks suddenly feel very hot as she saw the topless jock moving closer to her and sitting opposite her on one on the exercise machines._

"_What did you wanna speak to me about?" it was pretty obvious. Rachel was quite shocked at his question. Surely, he wasn't that dumb to ask that? He must have known it had something to do with the Jesse incident seen as he started to rub his cut knuckles with his hands._

"_You know." Rachel simply replied. There was no point saying it, he knew, plus it pains her to say it. She is still getting over the initial shock of it all._

"_Yeah." he sighed looking down at his soar, red knuckles._

"_I'm sorry." Rachel spoke after the long awkward silence that followed Finn's response._

_Finn shot his head up at the sound of her voice. "Rachel I'm the one who should be sorry."_

"_No because of what I said." she couldn't even say it aloud anymore it made her feel that guilty._

"_Rachel, I just beat up your ex." he looked her dead in the eyes. "I'm sorry. Clearly you still have feelings for him." he added._

"_What?" did she hear right?_

"_Come on Rachel don't play dumb. I'm not stupid." he informed her._

"_I-I-"_

"_-You still love him. I get it. Well actually I don't but I'm trying."_

"_Finn-"_

_Finn sighed and looked back down at his knuckles, this is going to be harder than he thought "-Rachel I can't expect you to run into my arms and say you want to be with me forever. You still want him and I know that. I know that you won't still want to be with me after I mess up, which is constantly, I know. It's just I wished you would."_

"_Finn." Rachel sighed. He was pouring his heart out to her and she's going to have to crush it. "You keep breaking my heart and I can't. I just can't. You broke my heart Finn."_

"_Yeah well you break mine very day." Finn started to shuffle his feet after his words passed his lips._

"_Finn. I-I didn't know."_

"_Yeah well you do. I mean everyday you would be telling me about something that happened with you and Jesse freakin-St James and how great he is. Then today was when you said-" Finn paused. He couldn't bring himself to say it either, though Rachel knew what he meant. "-Look it doesn't matter. Ever since Jesse came along, I feel like I'm falling in a bottomless pit. I fall faster as each day comes. So yeah that's pretty much how I feel."_

"_Well I'm sorry. For constantly breaking your heart."_

"_Same here. It's my fault that all of this has happened anyway."_

"_No it isn't Finn."_

"_Yeah it is Rachel, think about it. If I didn't break up with you then none of this wouldn't have happened. You would have never met Jesse, I would have never slept with Santana. We would still be together."_

"_Finn we both messed up."_

"_What?" he looked up at her again wondering what she was talking about. Wasn't it clear? He broke up with her to find his 'inner rockstar' crap, which he didn't even find. He was the one who screwed everything up. Didn't he say that to her?_

_Rachel sighed again. "We both messed up. I lied to you, I was basically, lets face it, a bitch to you." Finn's right eyebrow shot up at Rachel's choice words. "Face it, I treated you terribly. I screwed up what we had left of our friendship. So yeah we both messed up Finn." Rachel explained._

"_Well what do you wanna do?" Finn asked, looking down at his feet this time._

"_I don't know." Rachel mimicked Finn's action by looking down too._

"_Where are we? Friends? Strangers?"_

"_I don't know. I don't know what to do anymore. Finn." Rachel looked at him. "Tell me what to do."_

_Finn looked at her in confusion. She was asking him what to do. Him._

"_Rachel you…ermm…you can't ask me." he felt so stupid. He chickened out._

"_Well who can I ask?"_

"_I dunno surely there has to be someone?" he definitely felt stupid. He hated himself for doing this. He wanted to tell her to just be with him so badly, yet how does he know if that was the best thing for her. It was the best thing for him._

"_There's no-one Finn. No-one knows me better than you do. We have history that others wouldn't understand so Finn it has to be **you**. __You have to tell me what to do."_

_"Fine. I think you should-"_

**R-r-review =) Good, Bad?**


	7. The winner is?

**This chapter will be very long :) This chapter was meant to be up before Journey but because I was on GleeForum I couldn't concentrate on this :P So it look me ALOT longer than planned.**

**Skittles713****: Yeah, I wrote that last chapter at 2am and I couldn't think of anything else to end it, it was predictable though but now I can think of quite a few other endings :P All well.**

**Aww thank you ****SOO**** much for the alerts, favourites and reviews you lovely people. You don't know how much reviews make me happy. :D**

As she was leaning her head against the doorframe, Rachel started to feel calmer now, before she was gasping for air, now she seemed more relaxed, her mind was clear to think over things thoroughly. Feeling like she had more control on things, especially after the Jesse fiasco, it definitely felt good to be on top of things again. She started to reminisce on the good old times, her first joining Glee, hearing Finn sing for the very first time, seems funny how he was completely shocked in her way of singing in You're The One That I Want but now is desperate for her to sing with him, winning sectionals, Finn asking her out, Finn dumping her, Jesse asking her out, Jesse dumping her. Was she just that un-dateable? The egg throwing, how Jesse said he loved her, how she loved(s) him, Jesse and Finn. Just thinking about it again makes Rachel shudder. She should have been able to stop it. No matter how many times she or Jesse says she couldn't have stopped it, she could of. If she tried hard enough, she would have. She would have stopped it. She wouldn't be in this mess. She wouldn't feel trapped.

"_Yes?" Rachel asked eagerly._

"_You should…well I want you to…be with me." he sighed. He looked at her half expecting her to get up, walk over to him and slap him right on the face then storm out of the room, Rachel Berry style. She didn't. She just started at him, for a __**long**__ time. Feeling pretty awkward, Finn sighed and continued. "I know it sounds selfish of me but Rachel I want to be with you." she's still looking at him, speechless. "Again." he added. Rachel still wasn't responding to his answer. "Rachel?" he waved his hand in front of the stunned brunette as she sat in silence. "Helloooo? Anyone there?"_

_Rachel was still confused by what Finn answered to her simple question, that was the case until Finn physically place his hand on her shoulder and shook her, quite rapidly. "Huh? What?" she asked while leaving her carefree world. "Ermm…" she looked at Finn awkwardly as he hunched over and was looking down at the floor. Again. "…Finn. I-"_

"_I know. Your going to say that you cant, like you always do but I just don't learn, then I'll feel heart broken. Again."_

"_Actually I was going to say I just need time."_

_Finn instantly shot his head up at her answer. She said what? That was definitely wasn't what Finn thought she would say. There's a chance? He has a chance? "W-what?" Finn stuttered. He can believe what he's hearing._

"_Finn?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_I need to go."_

"_What?"_

"_I need to get to science and you have free period to go get a shirt." Rachel nodded at Finn's chest then looked back to his red face._

"_Oh. Ermm ok." and with that Rachel got up and left._

"_Hey Rachel?" Finn asked as Rachel was reaching out for the door handle._

_She turned back at the sound of his voice. "Yes?"_

"_It's nice to have you back." he flashed her, his grin again causing Rachel to suddenly go weak at the knees._

"_It's nice to be back." she returned his smile then quickly got out of there. Being in there one minute longer and Rachel would have been all over Finn right there, in the disgusting gym room. As Rachel shut the door and spun around, she was met by a very eager Quinn Fabray and Noah Puckerman._

"_So?" Quinn asked grinning. "What happened?"_

_Rachel smiled at how Quinn was getting all excited for something she didn't even know. It was adorable. "Nothing happened, Quinn." Rachel shrugged then brushed past the two students and walked her way to her next lesson._

"_W-what?" Quinn asked as she quickly joined Rachel's left side and matched her strides to her own. "But you were in there a long time. You can't say that something didn't happen. Can you?" Puck walked along side Rachel on her other side looking down at the girl as she started to blush._

"_Nope."_

_He walked out in front of Rachel and stopped abruptly. "Something __**did**__ happen."_

"_No it didn't Noah." Rachel reassured him as she tried to get past the jock._

"_So why are you blushing?" he asked raising one eyebrow up._

"_W-what? I am most certainly not blushing." Rachel protested._

"_Oh you so __**are**__." Quinn joined in as she looked at Rachel from the front._

"_Look Quinn, Noah, I would love to stand here all day and argue with you but unlike you two I do plan on going to my next lesson." Rachel calmly stated as she walked past them._

After Rachel had her time to herself to think things over, she spun around and headed back towards the stage wings. As she got closer and closer to reach the rest of her group, the music got clearer, the singing got clearer, Jesse's voice got clearer. Hearing them sing Bohemian Rhapsody made her feel queasy. Mr Schue was right, they were good. Really good. For the first time since they had arrived at here, Rachel started to doubt her own team. She started to wonder if VA would beat them, if VA would come out stronger, better. Thoughts swimming around her head, concerns, filling up inside her. She had come to a final decision. A decision she never made until now. VA were better, but ND were the underdogs. They won sectionals after the whole set list being leaked. They managed to find completely new songs within hours of performing them. They can do anything if they put their minds to it. They were good at improvising. They were the underdogs. They were New Directions.

_So there was Rachel. Sitting alone again, trying to write down notes from the teacher. She couldn't. Her mind was worrying about things to be thinking about particles at that moment in time. Jesse. She still has to see Jesse. He's in hospital and she isn't. He may have broke her heart, stomped on it, spat on it right in front of her then buried it somewhere she couldn't find it. He may have done all that but at the end of the ay, Rachel wasn't going to stop caring for him. She had true feelings for him, they don't disappear in an instant. They take time. Time Rachel didn't want to spend by not listening to Mr Thompson droning on about something. She needs to see Jesse she needs to see him now._

"_Mr Thompson?" Rachel raised her hand as she spoke._

"_Yes Rachel?"_

"_I need to go to the lavatory."_

"_Well I'm sorry but you need a pass for that."_

_A pass. How could she forget? She needs a lavatory pass to go. "Well it's important."_

"_I'm sorry Rachel but no pass no going."_

"_But sir it's __**really**__ important."_

_The whole class turned around looking at her, boys with a confused look, girls trying to keep themselves from letting a laugh escape their lips and filling the room with the loud noise. They had taken it the wrong way. They think that is something to do with her. Something was important to her. Rachel knew this and she didn't even care, she was to busy trying to get out of the damn classroom she didn't even correct them._

_Mr Thompson thought the same as the rest of the class, thinking it was something physically important to her. "Ermm well hurry up then Rachel." he gave in. he wasn't going to just let her stay there when clearly she wanted to go. Even if he did think, she wanted to go for the wrong reason._

"_Thank you." Rachel slid got out of her desk an swiftly made her way towards the door, leaving her school equipment behind her. She wasn't going to be quick. She wasn't coming back. She was going to see Jesse. She was going to do something she would have only dreamed of. Rachel felt the adrenaline pumping hard through her body, feeling more and more excited for what she was doing. This was Rachel. Rachel Berry. Rachel would never have done this. Thought that was old Rachel. The old Rachel that couldn't get a boyfriend. She's new Rachel. Rachel who dated 3 boys, two were jocks, two who when she was with them, linking arms with them down the corridor she felt girls being envious of her. Hating her but secretly wanting to be her inside. She was passing classrooms, carefully dodging all the windows, so she wouldn't be caught. She wouldn't be in trouble, all this sneaking around made Rachel feel so good. Now wonder Santana and Brittany do it everyday. The thrill of being on the edge, breaking the rules, it was almost too much for Rachel to take in. she was breaking the rules and for once in her life, she doesn't care. What has Jesse done to her? He's made her this rule-breaking, lying-to-teachers kind of girl. That wasn't Rachel and she knew it. She liked it. The new Rachel Berry. Rachel Berry mark two. Sounds good._

_As Rachel was walking straight out of the gates, the gates left open because of deliveries that come during the day and if they was ever a rush to get out. Like Jesse. She realised she needs a ride there, she didn't bring any type of transport with her. She can't take the bus because the driver knows her fathers well and would definitely tell them if they saw their daughter getting bus during school hours. She needs to get there. She can't ask Finn. Finn wouldn't take her if he knew she was going for Jesse and she wasn't going to lie to him. How is she going to get there? She needs to get there now._

"Hey guys." Rachel smiled as she walked into the room seeing her fellow Glee clubbers preparing by practicing their dance moves and some doing some last minute voice exercises. No-one replied to her greeting, some would look at her but then carry on, most just carried on as if they hadn't heard anyone talking to them. She wondered over to where Mercedes was and sat beside her in the chair on her left. "Hey Mercedes." Rachel smiled sweetly at her.

"Hey Rachel." Mercedes faced Rachel and smiled back at her then turning back to her mirror. "Where the hell did you go?"

"Oh I was just… just outside." Rachel replied while looking at herself in the mirror. She placed her hands on the back of her head and pushed the back of her hair upwards to create more volume. She looked at her outfit, her gold dress with matching headband. She smiled at herself as she saw how different she looked. Definitely, Rachel Berry mark two.

"_Rachel? What are you doing out here?" a voice called from behind her._

_She turned round half relived that it was someone she knew, but shocked that they ha found her._

"_Mr Schue." Rachel smiled at him trying to act all innocent when really she was skipping class. "I'm not dong anything. I just wanted to go ou for a bit, you know, bit a fresh air."_

"_Rachel you should be in class right now." he reminded her._

"_Yes but…"_

"_But?"_

"_Well I need to see Jesse, Mr Schue. I need to see him." Rachel looked Mr Schue in the eyes remembering how she used to find them so sparkling and lovely they were. Her crush with him was a long time ago. She was over it. She already has two boys she needs to choose between, she didn't want to add another into the mix. She was remembering how he wanted to see her in his office and how he said Jesse cared for her. How she said he didn't. He did. Jesse cared for Rachel and yet she was too blind to see that. No. Rachel cant keep wanting Jesse, he will just break her heart again and yet she will ever learn from her mistakes. Think of Finn. Finn. Did she even want Finn? Finn broke her heart just as Jesse did, granted not in the same way but the impact was the same. They both broke her heart. They both used her. How could she not see this? The only one who didn't seem to use her was…Noah? Noah was the one who said it like it was to her. He never sugar coated anything. He was truthful and Rachel always seemed to bring out the nice side of him. Finn and Jesse didn't seem to always tell her the truth. Finn tried distracting her by changing the subject. Jesse seemed to never talk about the truth. He was living one big lie with Rachel._

"_Mr Schue? Can you please take me there?" Rachel pleaded to him sticking her hands out. She had to give it a shot. Even I he said no at least she could say she tried._

_Mr Schue sighed looking at the desperate Rachel who was giving Mr Schue the look again. Twice in one day to him. "Fine but you can't tell anyone ok? I'll just so that I saw you wondering the halls and I took you to my office and had a word with you about skipping class." Rachel sighed. She would still be found out she was skipping class but this way she she's Jesse. The things she does for that boy._

"_Deal."_

"_Good. Now come on, I was on my way to see him anyway."_

_Rachel reached the hospital, running through the doors, she frantically ran towards any nurse or doctor that was near her and asked for Jesse St. James. They all responded the same saying that she needed to go to the reception, else she wouldn't find her required patient. "Excuse me? Rachel asked the head office as Mr Schue was entering the doors. She opened the door and leapt into the hospital as Mr Schue was parking the car. "Do you have a Jesse St. James? I was told to ask you." she informed the blonde receptionist._

"_Jesse…" the receptionist repeated to herself as she was typing it into the computer. "Jesse St. James. Ah, yes! Here we are." she turned to face the very desperate Rachel Berry. "I'm sorry but you need to be family or friend to visit him."_

"_I am a friend." she answered, angrily._

"_I'm sorry but we can't know for sure until Mr James ha-"_

"_It's ok she's with me." Mr Schue interrupted her as he walked up to the desk._

"_I'm sorry you are?"_

"_I'm Mr Schuester. I'm the one who rang 911 and told them about Jesse. I'm his Spanish teacher and this is one of my students, Rachel, his girlf-" he suddenly stopped talking and closed his mouth tight while looking at Rachel quickly. His eyes suddenly going wide. "His friend." he corrected himself._

'_How does he know?' Rachel thought to herself as they were walking towards Jesse's room. 'Its not like I told him.' she continued._

"_Ready Rachel?" Mr Schue asked as he stopped, with his back against the front of the door, facing her._

"_Yep." Rachel nodded._

_Any thought she had over how Mr Schue could have known about Jesse breaking if off with herself, disappeared from her brain in an instant as she saw Jesse on the hospital bed. She ran towards him, hugging him as she cried into his unconscious body. It made her feel sick as she saw him there, completely vulnerable, completely dependant on others at the moment. Completely not Jesse._

"_Mr Schue?" Rachel lifted her head up and faced her Spanish teacher with her eyes all puffy._

"_Yes Rachel?"_

"_What did the doctors say about him regaining consciousness?" she saw Mr Schue talking to doctor when she was still crying into Jesse._

"_Oh, well they said he should be fine. They said he would be drifting in and out for a short while then regaining full consciousness. "Mr Schue explained as he sat down on one of the two blue chairs which were on the left of the bed. "Rachel, come on sit." he patted his hand on the seat next to him making her slowly rise and walked over to the chair and slump into it._

"_Mr Schue?"_

"_Yes?" he turned to face her smiling._

"_How did you know? I mean how did you know about me and Jesse?"_

_His smiled faded as he looked away from Rachel to Jesse. "Jesse told me."_

"_What?"_

"_Yeah. I asked him why Finn did this, I mean I kinda guessed it had something to do with you Rachel, and he said that he broke up with you and that Finn heard and…well yeah."_

"_Oh."_

_Both of them sat there in complete silence, Mr Schue checking the clock to make sure that he and Rachel had plenty of time left to get back to school and get Rachel to her next lesson. Rachel was just staring at Jesse, sitting up when he was gaining conscious, only to go back after. His parents were still in Bali but when Mr Schue made a phone call to them just to inform them, they said they were coming as soon as possible. So Rachel and Mr Schue were sitting there, one was waiting while the other was timing. That was until the door opened to reveal two figures, one medium height, the other freakishly tall. Mr Schue stood up as he heard the door opened and the figures entered._

"_Finn, what have you done?" a voice asked which was very similar to Finn's mother's._

"_I-I…ermm…" Finn stuttered. He turned to face Jesse when he saw Mr Schue approaching them. "Mr Schue?"_

"_Finn? What are you doing here?"_

"_Well Mr Schuester. Finn told me about what he did to Jesse and I marched him over here to apologise to Jesse and his parents." Mrs Hudson answered for her son. "Where are his parents by the way?"_

"_Oh." Mr Schue looked behind him, then turned back to the mother and son in front of him. "They aren't here yet. They were still in Bali, but I phoned them and they said they will be here as soon as possible."_

"_Oh. Well we will wait her until then." Mrs Hudson said as she put her bag up on one of the pegs on the door._

_Finn let out a sigh as he turned to see Jesse when he saw another person in the room with them. The brunette kneeling at Jesse's side, taking his hand in theirs and stroking his hand gently. That's when Finn clocked who it was. Who the person, who was comforting him was. Rachel._

"_Rachel?" Finn squinted his eyes at the back of her head._

_Rachel turned around at the sound of her voice to see a confused Finn Hudson looking at her, squinting at her more like it, she locked eyes on his as he walked a little bit closer to her and Jesse._

"_R-Rachel?" he asked again still slowly coming closer towards them. "W-what are you doing here?" stupid question._

"_Finn what does it look like?" his mum sighed as she turned to his Spanish teacher. "God, you think he would know wouldn't you?"_

"_Finn?" Rachel rose from Jesse's side and stood there as Finn was approaching her. "What?" she tried to seem happy that he was there but if anything, it was the complete opposite. Feeling suddenly queasy as Finn locked eyes on her not saying one word. Just staring deeply into her brown eyes. Rachel was feeling really uneasy as Finn stopped right in front of her, centimetres apart, she could feel the air coming out of his nose and tingling her bottom lip. His body heat radiating off him to her._

"_What are you doing here?" he simply asked._

"_I'm here for Jesse."_

"_Yes I know that but you said you had science next."_

"_I…well I did…but I…"_

"_You skipped class for him?" he asked with annoyance in his voice._

"_Ermm…"_

"_Rachel?" Mr Schue interrupted. "We have to go now. You need to be at school."_

"_Oh ok." Rachel brushed past the annoyed jock, grabbed her coat and quickly fled from the room. Her heart thumping from the mental image of Finn's face as he was approaching her. The anger, guilt, confusion just oozing out of him. His lips slightly pursing and his fist clenched. Rachel could spot it from a mile off. He was so happy, kind and cheerful like an hour ago! How could he change from that? As Rachel arrived back into school, she was distant, distant for the rest of the day. She didn't speak to anyone, she didn't even raise her hand to answer the teacher or correct them when they were clearly wrong. She just stared into space. It was as if her body was there but her mind was somewhere completely different, so far away. The next day didn't help either. She walked into school as normal, got slushied, cleaned herself up and went to her lesson. As she was walking to Maths, she saw the same boy she saw at the hospital coming down opposite her. Finn. She tried dodging him by walking behind big crowds and gangs of students but they just looked at her like she was crazy and walked away from her. He was getting closer now and she had no way of stopping him noticing her. She had no disguise. No way to avoid him. So she did what she thought was best. Walk the same direction as him so he can only see the back of your head. How could he tell it's her when there are plenty of other brunettes in this school? It's highly unlikely he could ever notice her. He was looking down as he walked, hands in pockets, hunched. He wouldn't be able to notice her. Yet he still did._

As Vocal Adrenaline were taking their bows and filing off the stage, Mr Schue grew more and more nervous. The stage was empty. Ready for ND to make their appearance and dazzle the audience filling up the silence with their voices. This will be the night to remember. VA has always won but this time ND is here and they are going to show why there are. Mr Schue was sure that they had a chance, even if it was a very small one, it was still a chance. A chance to be great. No scratch that, a chance to be spectacular. As VA were walking and talking to one another, they walked passed ND giving them death stares and giving insults to them as if they were nothing but vermin under their feet.

"I don't see why you even bother. It's not like your going to win or anything. Is it?" a brunette told Kurt as she walked past him. Kurt just muttered something under his breath as he gave her dirty stares and she smiled and flounced off to their dressers.

"Yeah, Rachel I really don't know why you're here." Jesse said as he walked up to the young star. He was facing her full on, centimetres apart just like Finn was a couple of days ago. As he got closer, Rachel could start seeing his eye a lot better. How darker it looks, even with all the make-up on it. You could still see how much it hurt. How much it bruised him. His eye was still bloodshot which didn't help with the whole big purple ring around it. "You wont win Berry." he had gone from calling her Rachel to Berry like Noah did but in reverse.

"We'll see about that." Rachel replied smiling at him.

"Oh yeah? You can't beat us."

"Maybe not, but Finn can beat you." Rachel tilted her head to the left slightly, feeling proud of her comeback to Jesse's insult. Just watching him squirm because he has no comeback to hers, made Rachel feel good. Jesse looked around from ND to VA as he heard a collective of "Oooo". He saw that his own team had nothing to say to it. Therefore, Jesse leaned in close to Rachel and whispered in her ear.

"Watch it, Berry." and with that he and the rest of VA vanished behind the curtains.

"Right come on then guys. Let's get into positions on the stage. Rachel, Finn you know where to go." Rachel nodded, as Finn looked a bit confused. Rachel rolled her eyes after seeing Finn's face, took his hand, and dragged him to behind the audience. **(A/N: It's the faithfully song first and I think about everyone has seen this.)**

After singing their last song, ND was met by a loud cheer as the audience stood up and clapped their ands as hard as they possibly could.

"You guys were magnificent. Seriously, I think we have as good of a shot of winning this as much as VA does. Well done." Mr Schue smiled as he patted each one of them on the back. He couldn't help but smile as he saw Shelby's face drop slightly as she saw them perform. That made him go insanely happy. Yes, Mr Schue was on top of the world right now and in 2 hours, they would find out the result.

_Rachel was power walking down the stairs when she felt a hand on her shoulder stopping her in her tracks. She knew who it was. It was pretty obvious. They moved in front of her and Rachel saw that it was him. Finn standing in front of her but for the first time in her life, he was smaller than she was. She was looking down at him. Usually it's the other way around. _

"_Rachel? We need to talk." Finn asked as he removed his hand away from her shoulder._

"_Finn. Yeah what did you want to talk about?" Rachel asked._

"_Why did you just try to ignore me just then?"_

"_I didn't Finn." Rachel lied._

"_Rachel, don't lie to me."_

"_I'm not lying to you, Finn I'm…" Rachel saw that Finn had a I'm-Not-Buying-Any-Of-It face on. "Fine" she sighed as she gave in. "It's just all the pressure from regionals that's coming up."_

"_Rachel. Don't worry about Regionals. We're going to Regionals and we're going to win this thing."_

_Without any thinking, any resistance to her action, she placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned in closing the gap between the two. She expected him to back away saying: "What are you doing? Just because Jesse broke up with you doesn't mean that I want to be with you now. You're just wanting me now because Jesse is out of the picture. Well guess what Rachel? No more. I'm done with playing your little games." and just walk away. Except he didn't. He didn't pull away. He didn't start any speech about wanting him now. He didn't move. He didn't flinch. He didn't do anything. She kissed him, not passionately, innocently and he just stood there. As she pulled back, she saw that he was shocked. His eyes squinting as he looked up at her. Confusion painted all over his face. Rachel couldn't help but smile at his expression and how she finally wanted him when he wanted her._

Rachel and Finn, standing behind two doors, waiting to sing in front of the crowd. Rachel filled with anxiety and excitement. She faced Finn who was staring at her, not for long thought because when both of their eyes met, he came walking towards her.

"Break a leg." Rachel beamed at him when he finally reached her.

"I love you."

What? He said what?

'Ladies and Gentlemen are second competitors. Winners of Central Ohio sectionals, McKinley high, New Directions' the overhead announced with the music starting, causing Finn to walk back to his original position and for Rachel to go back to hers. Rachel feeling shocked from the news that passed from Finn's mouth.

**(A/N: I wont write about them during the song because then the story will be ****too**** long and you've probably seen it but if you haven't because it hasn't aired like you live in the UK like me then its only on Monday. I've already seen it.)**

"That was AWESOME you guys." Mr Schue congratulated the kids as they spilled into the waiting room. "You really did me proud." he said as he patted Finn on the back. "Really."

"Thanks Mr Schue." Mercedes smiled at her Spanish teacher. "I think we did our best. That's all that counts."

"I agree, for the first time, with Rachel. Hell were going to win this thing." Santana blurted out.

As she remembered Rachel talking about winning regionals. "Hey you guys?" Santana asked sounding concerned.

"Yes Santana?" Rachel asked as she slowly walked up to the cheerleader. "What's wrong?"

"Do you think that VA will come last?"

"I hope so." Quinn spoke from the corner of the room feeding her baby.

"Quinn? When are you giving Beth?" Puck asked as he sat beside her.

"Why? Do you want her to go away?" she asked as her eyes narrowed at the jock who sat on her right.

"No! Of course not. I was just wondering."

"Oh. Well I don't know. I haven't found anyone good enough for her."

"New Directions? McKinley high?" a brunette women asked as she peeked her head through the door.

"Yes?" Mr Schue confirmed as he approached the floating head.

"Ahh. Good. Well we need you on stage because we're going to introduce the winner now.

"Oh ok thank you." Mr Schue nodded to the head. After she had disappeared, Mr Schue turned to face the nervous teenagers. They all went white in the face as their eyes widened as big as saucers. "Ready?" he asked them while they were just standing still. Frozen.

"No." Rachel answered with a small laugh, which broke the tension that was building after the women had brought the news.

After Rachel's answer the rest of the club laughed with her, making the atmosphere a little more bearable, until they stopped. They walked, holding hands and crossing fingers, towards the stage to see Aural Intensity and, their mortal enemy that made their blood boil at just the sight of them, Vocal Adrenaline. They stood on the left of the grand stage, looking out into the crowd. Aural Intensity members next to them, looking down and taking deep breaths. Preparing themselves for the life changing new that was going to be imparted on all three teams. The news that would make or break them.

The crowd suddenly went from dead silent to cheering as the four judges came out. Including Sue, in her red tracksuit. As they walked pat New Directions, Mr Schue couldn't help but feel sorry for the kids. Sue wasn't going to vote for them to stay in. she was going to do the opposite and make the other three judges do the same. "Thank you all for coming. As you all know, Glee club is such and important… and I honestly can't even finish that sentence so lets just get to it." Sue announced over the microphone. She slowly picked up one of three white pieces of paper from the table. All three Glee clubs preparing themselves, shuffling, taking deep breaths as the piece of paper was in reading distance of Sue's eyes and brought the microphone closer to her mouth.

"The 2010 Mid-West regional runners up." Sue paused building up the suspense that was unbearable for New Directions as they held each other's hands tightly and closed their eyes. "From Fourth Wayne Indiana, the not at all stupidly named, Aural Intensity." a loud buzz was heard from the middle of the stage as Aural Intensity jumped up and down, screaming, cheering, clapping and hugging. They collected their trophy and walked off the stage still whooping. As the cheering died down, the two remaining teams shuffled together as they still awaited their ending. Jesse and Rachel quickly exchanged looks, as they knew one would succeed while the other fails. One will win. Other will lose.

"And now, your 2010, Mid-West regional show-choir champions." Sue paused yet again. Both teams could feel the pressure building up. Feel it getting bigger and bigger. It's been one whole year since they started. Look how far they have come. Look how they have matured. How they have grown. How they have become friends and at peace with one another. How Glee club brought them closer. Brought new friends. Brought a family. All of one years of hard work was either going to finally pay off, or just go down the drain. Sue slowly lifted the paper that contained the winner out of the envelope.

"Vocal Adrenaline."

**R-r-review. I was going to have them win anyway. Ahh my first completed fic. I feel very proud :P.**


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